Diving Into Jack Ryan

Photo: Amazon Prime Video

After a three-year wait, a third season of the explosive spy thriller Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan will be available to Amazon Prime Video subscribers on December 21. 

Amazon has found success with action-packed shows about veterans of American military and counterintelligence services blasting their way to the bottom of conspiracies. Reacher and The Terminal List both made waves on the Watchworthy leaderboards this year, providing Amazon with needed victories against rivals like Netflix and Disney+. But Jack Ryan is what started the trend, breathing new life into a stagnating film franchise and winning over critics and fans with its focus on quality action sequences and likable characters. 

But as popular as the series is, Amazon will need to grow its audience even more if it hopes to remain competitive as the Streaming Wars reach a crucial juncture. The streamer’s massively expensive Rings of Power show has receded into the background, and to take advantage of the cutbacks affecting Netflix, HBO Max, and other streamers, it needs to draw subscribers to its platform and away from those of competitors. 

As CIA agent Jack Ryan prepares to take on a new threat, how can Amazon entice customers to tune in? We take a look at the lists on which Jack Ryan sits highest to identify what it is about the show that fans love most, as well as some shows on other streaming platforms that Amazon should reach out to in its push to grow the spy show’s audience.

Season 3 of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan premieres December 21 on Amazon Prime Video. 

Photo: Amazon Prime

What Do Fans Love About Jack Ryan?

Some of the Ranker lists where Jack Ryan performs best aren’t of much use to Amazon from a subscriber conquest standpoint, but they still contain useful insights Amazon’s marketing team could use to promote the show to existing subscribers. Jack Ryan is #1 on The Best TV Shows On Amazon Prime (19K votes), as well as on the slightly more specific Best Action Shows On Amazon Prime (2K votes). That’s impressive, especially considering the show comes in ahead of smash hit The Boys on both lists, but it doesn’t tell us much about how Amazon can pull more viewers to the show.

More instructive is Jack Ryan’s #1 spot on The Best Action Shows On TV Right Now (7K votes), ahead of The Blacklist, Vikings, and The Mandalorian. Perhaps even more impressive, the show is ranked #6 on The Best Action TV Series Of All Time (38K votes), where it’s three spots behind fellow Amazon alum Reacher. In a television era full of imaginative, boundary-pushing dramas, Amazon has smartly staked out the underserved territory of classic, meat-and-potatoes action thrillers. That’s a pool of viewers to which the streamer should continue to appeal as it drums up publicity for the latest installment of its flagship thriller series. 

Also instructive is the show’s #7 spot on The Best Ever Shows About Spies (36K votes) — the only other series on the list that’s also still on the air is The Blacklist, which is just one spot ahead of Jack Ryan. Spy shows are almost always in vogue, and the current era in TV is no different: recent entries in the genre include Disney+’s Andor, FX/Hulu’s The Old Man, Apple TV+’s Slow Horses, and Netflix’s Kleo. Reaching out to fans of these shows, as well as those of hits still in recent memory like The Americans and Homeland, would be a smart move on the part of Amazon Prime.

Who’s Watching Jack Ryan?

Fans of the genres Jack Ryan belongs to are no-brainer targets for future marketing campaigns, but Insights can help us to get much more specific. We’re taking a look at shows on other streamers whose fans are statistically more likely to love Jack Ryan, allowing us to uncover some valuable and often unexpected new audiences for Amazon.

PARAMOUNT+/SHOWTIME

With the merger of Paramount+ and Showtime all but official, subscribers to Paramount’s emergent streaming service are likely in for a bump in prices to accompany the expanded content library. That gives Amazon a great reason to reach out to fans of hit neo-Western Yellowstone to see if they’d consider spending their streaming budget on Amazon instead, given that Yellowstone fans are 6X more likely to also love Jack Ryan. They might also consider targeting fans of SEAL Team, Paramount+’s action-packed military drama, and Billions, the beloved Showtime series, both of which are 5X more likely to be beloved by Jack Ryan fans. 

These viewers love Jack Ryan and… Yellowstone, SEAL Team, Billions

HBO MAX

After battling with HBO Max all summer, with fantasy epics House of the Dragon and Rings of Power both vying for fantasy fans, Amazon would likely love a shot at the streamer’s subscribers. If Prime is going to pull any viewers away from HBO Max thanks to Jack Ryan, it’s probable that they’re fans of crime drama True Detective and crime comedy Barry, both of which have fans who are 4X more likely to also love Jack Ryan. Amazon might also consider reaching out to fans of mystery miniseries Mare of Easttown, which has fans who are 2X more likely to love Prime’s Tom Clancy series. 

These viewers love Jack Ryan and… True Detective, Barry, Mare of Easttown

NETFLIX

News of Netflix’s financial woes dominated the streaming TV news cycle for much of 2022, much to the excitement of competing services. Though Netflix’s luck has picked up in the later months of the year, Amazon can still hope to draw eyes away from the service — especially fans of The Witcher. Fans of the show may be dismayed to learn that star Henry Cavill is set to be replaced, and because they’re 5X more likely to like Jack Ryan, that makes them easy targets for Amazon marketing campaigns in the coming month. Amazon could also look into the audiences of Cobra Kai and Bloodline, both of which are 4X more likely to enjoy Jack Ryan. 

These viewers love Jack Ryan and… The Witcher, Cobra Kai, Bloodline

These stories are crafted using Ranker Insights, which takes over one billion votes cast on Ranker.com and converts them into actionable psychographics about pop culture fans across the world. To learn more about how our Ranker Insights can be customized to serve your business needs, visit insights.ranker.com, or email us at insights@ranker.com.

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